The death of a mentor

Lightning crackled around Ryu's fist as he activated the Jodan technique using the handseals; Tiger and Dog. Bringing his fist back to his side he launched forward and then dropped into a squat, his knee and lower leg muscles coiling and then exploding upwards with force. Ryuzaki brought his fist up and in front of his body as he sprang upward, his fist continuing to rise above his head until it reached the target on the tree in front of him. Crashing through the first few layers of bark Ryuzaki continued to rise, he brought his hands back down, twisting his body round he brought his back leg up to around his waist and extended it, the Lightning energy then transferring to his foot and struck the tree again in a slightly lower spot with the top of his foot, piercing through the already depleted layers of bark and taking out a chunk of the tree equal to Ryuuzakis size nine-foot

Ryuzakis spin completed and he used his other foot to push off the tree and spring backwards, as he did he dropped his head backwards and brought both his legs up over his head, using the momentum to flip backwards, as he descended to the ground he reached out both his hands and spread his fingers to take his weight on the ground and springboarded backwards, fully completing the flip and returning to his normal fighting position. "Its cutting power is good, but I think I can force more out of it," Ryuzaki said to himself as he started to form handseals again. Ryu brought his hands together at equal height, his thumbs, forefinger and index finger parallel to each other, his rear two-fingers interlacing together, as he did his chakra began to swell. Following after he had completed this handseal he clenched his left fist and put his right hand over the top outstretched across the top of his left hand, forming the dog handseal. Chakra pushed from his core down to his hands and he repeated the action as he approached the tree, this time funnelling more chakra to his hand and changing it to lightning affinity. Ryu's hand started to glow blue and the energy field then changes to lightning and a quiet crackling sound could be heard as the energy started to pulsate. Ryuzaki doubled the chakra output as the energy field expanded from his hand then began to shrink as it was concentrated to increase the penetrating power of the jutsu. Ryuzaki surged forward and performed the uppercut with lightning enhanced chakra again this time cutting out more of the bark, and with the follow-up action, he performed another swift kick, this time penetrating further into the tree as he finished the motion he regained his stance. A cracking sound started to emanate from the tree as it slowly started to snap the remaining support structure of the trunk. All of a sudden the rest of the trunk gave way and the tree plummeted downwards and crashed next to Ryu, his eyes widened as he dived to the side, narrowly avoiding being flattened by the tree.

WC 522

Ryuzaki picked himself up off the ground and dusted down his clothes "Well I think that is enough for one day". Gathering his thing Ryuzaki dropped off the side of the cliff and started to wall run down the mountainside, it was not steep enough to be unassailable, but Ryuzaki was extra cautious after nearly flattening himself minutes before. After a few more minutes Ryuzaki reached his home he shared with his master Yamamoto and their dog Taco.

The air around the mountainside home was still and unusually quiet, Ryuzaki did not give it a second thought as he entered his home. A second odd thing occurred to Ryu, he was not greeted by the usual friendly and energetic dog parks. Ryuzaki entered into the bathroom as he took off his shirt and filled the washbasin with water, he began to splash water on his face and neck, washing away the grime of the days training. After a few minutes, Ryuzaki exited back into the main area of the house and something caught his eye, Yamamoto's sword was missing, his mind instantly shot to a distant memory.

A six years old Ryu is playing outside the house with a young Taco and a ball, he rushes back into the house. Yamamoto sat on the floor an open sword case in front of him, the various contents splayed out around him. As he cleaned the weapon he noticed Ryu had entered the room. "I don't think I have ever told you about this weapon", he began not taking his eyes off the task at hand "This belonged to my brother, and it took his life" Ryuzaki was shocked, not by the thought of what the weapon had done, but that his master had never mentioned anything about his family before, perhaps the act of maintaining the weapon had made him nostalgic "It has not been used in combat since, and will not be used again until the man who killed my brother and his family is within its reach"

Ryuzaki snapped back suddenly alert, the sword was gone, Taco was not here and there was something that felt wrong. 

WC: 358
TWC: 880

A cold pang of fear shot through Ryuzakis mind, the house suddenly felt bigger and colder than it did the moment before. Ryuzaki dropped to one knee as his mind began to race, the possibilities were numerous, he closed both his eyes and formed the tiger handseal, the seal always made him feel comfortable and allowed him to focus on one thing. A few minutes passed and Ryuzaki rose to his feet, his hands coming apart and his eyes slowly opened, his pupils showing a certain resolve. Turning into the dojo where he and his master had trained countless times Ryuzaki began to check his supplies and ninja tools, multiple kunai and shuriken, explosive tags, wire and a tanto. Then onto his food and drink, a water-filled bamboo container and some simple food items. 

Exiting his home Ryuzaki set about searching for a sign of a struggle or any tracks that he could use. An hour passed before he found some tracks from Taco that was not just circling the property in some fashion. Taking off after the tracks Ryuzaki began to hunt for his master or their dog, unfortunately, his master would not leave much of anything to follow, he was a ninja of the highest quality, at least the level of an ANBU black ops member unless he wanted to be found, there would be little chance of him being followed, and Ryuzaki was not a high-level ninja, nor one that had many talents for pursuit.

The night was only a few hours away, the light had already started to fade, Ryuzaki would need to find some other sign along the tracks by then or else he would have to wait until the morning came. The tracks themselves were clearly that of an animal, Ryuzaki was hoping that they were Taco's but it was possible they were other animals of equal size or weight distribution. After a few more hours and the light had all but gone Ryuzaki found what he was looking for, the tracks began to change, they appeared to be more frequent and less like some animal that was sprinting at full speed and one that was now injured. Ryuzaki pressed on at full speed, he was now sure he could catch up to whatever he was tracking, and catch up he id. Ryuzaki dropped from a mountainside and followed the terrain down into a water reservoir, a rare sight in the Kumo landscape, sat curled up by the side of the body of water Ryuzaki saw his loyal and long term friend Taco.

WC: 429
TWC: 1309

Ryuzaki rushed over towards his friend, the situation that was currently happening sparked urgency in him, the dog was never far from the house even though it had complete freedom. As Ryuzaki approached the dogs sprang to its feet, as Taco realized who it was the dogs face dropped and it bends down on its front legs and a pained whimper left its mouth. Ryuzaki came to a sliding stop next to the dog and his arms naturally went to the dogs head, he had never seen anything over than energized excitement out of the dog, Ryuzaki knew something was wrong. Ryuzaki started to run his hands along the dog's body, his basic medical training taking over as he felt for injuries, the dog had something wrong with his front left paw, as if it had been crushed by something heavy.

Ryu brought his hands together into the boar handseal and then green energy started to hum around Ryu's hands, he planted them gently on the paw ofTaco, and after a few minutes his healing was complete, he augmented his healing by wrapping a bandage tightly around the paw of Taco. He reached up and started to scratch the dog behind the ear "I'm sorry buddy but I need you to carry on, we need to find Yamamoto, I can't do it without you", Ryuzaki smiled at the dog as he rose to his feet, Taco mirrored his action and rose to his feet, he imagined that the dog was running after Yamamoto anyway when whatever had injured him occurred, this once again made the situation seem more dangerous then Ryu first assumed. Taco started to sniff around and after a few short minutes he picked up the trail, this confirmed in Ryu's mind that the dog was following both their masters and that they were heading in the right direction.

WC: 311
TWC: 1620

The night had now fully closed in, the only light source the reflection from the moon, Ryuzaki ran behind his long term friend and current team member, Taco. The going was slower than he would have liked on account of Taco's injured front paw, but it was still better than him aimlessly running around the mountains at night. After a few minutes, Ryuzaki and Taco started to climb up a cliffside, both of them activating the wall walking technique, the sounds of a battle pierced through the still night air, and Ryuzaki picked up the pace, now leaving the half-speed Taco behind, his job was done.

As Ryuzaki reached the zenith of the climb he shot over the cliff edge and landed on flat ground, a plateau stretched out around him, encircled by trees and then another sharp climb up to the next ridgeline, the first thing Ryu heard was the clash of metal, but the sight in front of him took a moment to sink in, there were various bodies strewn around the plateau, A huge ring of fire encircled two men who were engaged in a power struggle, sword to sword. Ryuzaki tried to make sense of what was happening, he recognised the familiar shine of the kimono his master wore, but it was tattered and he looked more pushed to the edge than Ryu had ever seen him before, their eyes met for a split second before Ryus attention was taken away by oncoming attackers.

Two unknown assailants started to close the distance on Ryu, they circled the fire and started to full sprint towards him, the behind came to a stop around thirty metres away from Ryuzaki and drew a kunai in each hand, hurling them towards Ryu, the forward adversary kept his sprint and charged Ryu. Responding to the new threat Ryus left hand reached behind him to the hilt of his tanto and drew it, spinning it round in his hand and grasping it so it was reversed, the blade coming out the bottom of Ryu's clenched fist, at the same time he started to make handseals with his left hand. "Rat → Monkey → Dragon→ Boar → Dog → Bird", Ryu began to quickly form his one-handed seals. First, the kunai reached Ryu's location, with a quick succession of swipes he successfully deflected the kunai away from his centre mass, almost immediately after the charging attacker reached Ryu. They coordinate well, the thought shot through Ryu's head, in a continuous motion he swang his blade in a swipe across his body to try and catch the attacker as he reached Ryu, but the weapon attack was dodged, the blade sailing through the air above the man, he had ducked, Ryu's eyes came down to meet the man, but he once again had moved, he sprang backwards, although this had not been the plan, the action of the would-be attacker fell straight into Ryu's jutsu. The shadow at Ryu's feet began to darken and extend simultaneously, shooting forward it lurched towards the man who had jumped back, meeting his own shadow as he landed from his backward jump. "Shadow Possession complete", Ryuzaki said as his eyes narrowed, an ominous look befalling him, 'This is it... I'm taking his life' Ryuzaki thought, he had never taken someone's life, he had come close before but never had to actually drain someone completely of their life-force. Ryuzaki's hand gripped his tanto slightly tighter, the man across from him mirrored his action, he tried to move but was completely unable to, the realisation of what was about to happen hit him and his face widened as fear took hold. 

Ryuzaki moved forward at a sprint, the weapon held out in front of him, the two men mirrored each other's action and sprinted to a meeting point, as they meet in the centre of the distance between them Ryuzaki stabbed with his tanto into the man's chest, he was struck in a similar place by his opponent, however, as he was not armed it was a very light blow. Ryuzaki released his jutsu, the shadow retreating from his opponent and back to his feet, the colour returned to normal and it lost its darker oil like feature. At the same time as he released his technique he twisted the weapon, and sharply slashed to the side ripping it out of the man's chest, he went limp and dropped to the floor, he was still breathing, at least for the next few seconds. Ryuzaki's eyes shot up to the second attacker, they were now within ten metres of each other.

WC:770
TWC: 2390

Ryuzaki started to step to his right, one foot at a time, making sure to never cross his feet, "footwork is key to maintaining control in a battle" his master words shot through his mind as he risked a glance to his left. The battle between Yamamoto and his unknown opponent raged on, it was massive in scale compared to what was happening with Ryu, fire and water jutsu clashed against each other. Ryuzaki momentary glance away gave his opponent the opportunity he wanted, with a deafening crunch the man slammed his fist into the ground in front of him, the earth began to shake and split apart. Ryu's footing began to giveaway, instead of going with the motion he chose to leap into the air, but, that was exactly what his opponent wanted. Ryuzaki started to make handseals to bring some offence to the man, but he was already too late, as he reached the zenith of his jump, Ryu was met with a basketball-sized fireball directly to the chest. Ryuzaki was blown backwards and he cried out as his chest began to burn, his consciousness began to fade as he hurtled over the edge of the plateau and down into the ravine below.

Yamamoto drew a scroll from some unseen compartment within his kimono, the loss of his left arm had given him plenty of extra equipment storage space, at least there was a positive to it. The man who stood across from Yama was named Genataro, the man had killed Yamamoto's brother along with his wife and presumably two children, but he had never found their bodies, it had been seventeen years since that day, the sword that was hung across his back had belonged to his brother, and through some twist of fate had also been used to slay the previously mentioned family. Yamamoto had happened upon the bodies in his brothers home days after the incident that took their lives, the sword still sticking out of the chest of his brother, on that day he had vowed revenge, although it took many years he had found out Genataro was the culprit and this day that man stood across the plateau from him. Yamoto's eyes were drawn to the side as he meets his adopted son's eyes, at the same moment he unfurled the scroll and flung his hand to the side, it unfurled quickly and he dropped it to the ground, slamming his foot on the seal in the middle at the same time he made a unique handseal and water burst out of the scroll. Simultainsly he gathered chakra at the bottom of his feet and activated the water walking technique, more handseals were formed by his single hand, water rushed up from the surface now and started to form into a dragon. Yamamoto let out a scream as he pushed all his chakra into the technique, as the technique rushed towards his enemy he glanced back towards his son and saw what was unfolding. 

Yamamoto's formed a handseal and made a shadow clone, it took off running away from the battle, his gaze turned back to his opponent who had dealt with the water dragon but was soaked with water. "Genataro, this cycle of vengeance ends here, and now. For my family, I must destroy you. Gate of view OPEN" Yamamoto power started to swell, exploding outward an aura spanned a large area and had rigid edges and then started to coalesce a few inches around Yamamoto's body, it took a hazy heat like form and settled. Yamamoto propelled himself forward, no indication of movement to give his opponent any time to react. In between two blinks Yamamoto went from his current position to in front of his opponent, he ducked down and brought his leg round and up to his opponent's chin "Leaf Rising Wind" the words escaped Yamamoto's mouth as his foot connected with a block that his opponent Genataro had managed to bring barely in time. Although escaping the majority of the damage he was still lifted up into the air, Yamamoto flung himself upwards to he appeared in front of his sailing opponent. He started to launch a flurry of punches at his opponent's chest, as he did his aura started to rage and parts of it would fly in the opposite direction of where he was punching, the aura forming into flames as they flew away from the confrontation "ASAKUJAKU".

Genataro body went limped and flew down towards the floor, as he impacted the ground it shattered underneath the force and various bits of the ground formed plates and started to slide out of the ground and formed a wall until the force was spent and the dust settled. Yamamoto landed just in front of the man, the sword from his back now in his hand. "And so passes Genataro of the rain" The ruined man in front of Yamamoto was still breathing, although his breaths were very shallow and laboured. Yamamoto stabbed the man in the heart and twisted, his life force ebbing out of him, drawing the blade back and swiping it downward, the blood flowed from the blade. Wiping the blood-soaked blade across his sleeve he cleaned the rest of the blade before slowly sliding it back into its sheath. 

At the same time as the final confrontation between Yamamoto and Genataro, the shadow clone created went after Ryuzaki as he was shot over the edge of the plateau, he was able to catch him before he started to fall. Reaching back into another hidden compartment of his kimono the shadow clone brought out a kunai with a length of wire attached to it, he threw the kunai at the cliffside two metres below the edge, as it impacted the cliff it dug in deep enough to take hold. The shadow clone yanked hard on the wire and it sent him flying towards the cliffside, he shifted his weight in mid-air and sent chakra to his feet, activating the surface walking technique. Running up the cliff the shadow clone hurled Ryuzaki over the edge and then cancelled his existence. Ryuzaki hit the ground with a thud, his consciousness started to fade, his master appeared in front of him, the enemy had all been taking care of "My son, its almost over". The words coming from his master felt very reassuring, he had never called Ryu his son before, and very few times had his words been anything over than authoritative, his next words were back to his usual tone "Reinforcements. Ryu underneath the dojo at home there is a letter when you get back to be sure to find it". Ryuzaki was confused as the words from his master sounded like they were about to be separated, then the scene of the plateau was evident to Ryu as his consciousness fully faded. The reinforcements that Yamamoto had mentioned were the unit Genataro was part of, the dishonoured and rogue ninja division of rain ANBU. Yamamoto began to count the adversaries before him but stopped when he reached double digits "To think I would end in the defence of a son, my son" a smile formed on Yamamoto's face as he took one last look at Ryu, his thumb puncturing a hole above his heart.


"Gate of Death OPEN"

WC: 1223
TWC: 3600

Claims: +36 Stats: +15 Strength, +21 Vigor. 2500 for Shadow Imitation Field, 500 words for Genjutsu Release & Mastery 1 (No handsigns), 100 / 2000 for Eight Inner Gates (Skill).

Approved. Loved reading this thread btw.